


All Your Smiles

by megastarstrike



Category: Subnautica (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Strangers to Friends to Lovers, riding the line between canon compliant and fuck canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 10:04:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17979290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/megastarstrike/pseuds/megastarstrike
Summary: When Keen accepted a job as second officer of the Aurora, he hadn't expected anything more than the usual routine of supervising departments and ensuring nobody killed each other before they finished the job they were assigned by Alterra.Then Yu smiled at him.





	All Your Smiles

**Author's Note:**

> can you guys believe i actually wrote something based on canon? unbelievable.

The first time Keen met Yu, her smile was peculiar.

“Keen!” Hollister called before they boarded the Aurora. “Come meet your co-workers. I was just briefing them on the secondary mission. Teamwork is essential to a project of this caliber, as I’m sure you already know.”

The Aurora stood tall and mighty behind them, almost blocking light from reaching the platform they were standing on. Keen had been waiting to board the ship for around half a year, and he didn’t want to wait more just to meet strangers. Still, he knew better than to disobey direct orders from someone who would be his captain for the better part of the year.

There was a group of people standing on either side of Hollister, some avoiding eye contact and others practically challenging him to a staredown (yet curiously, all of them had a blue streak in their hair. Alterra fashion trends were weird). He went down the line, shaking hands and introducing himself, before his streak was disturbed by a woman reaching out first.

The woman smiled as she shook his hand with a firm grip. “Good evening. My name is Yu, and I will be the Chief Technology Officer onboard.”

It was, by all means, a normal smile. Polite. Sweet but not saccharine. Yet there was something subtly off about it.

He could figure that out later. For now, he greeted her with a nod. “My name is Keen, and I will be the Second Officer. It’s a pleasure to work with you.”

And with that, the new staff boarded the Aurora.

 

* * *

 

Life on the Aurora was surprisingly calm, much calmer than his work on other ships. For the most part, the crew members were either friends or had no other interaction than greeting each other with the tilt of a head when they passed each other in the halls. The ship hadn’t been smacked down by a meteor or raided by pirates yet, which counted as a victory in his books. Still, that doesn’t mean it was without its fair share of disputes, and as the second officer, it was his job to make sure no one on the ship killed each other.

“Nobody is to blame here,” Keen said, positioning himself between the two disputing people. “And the ship is no place to have a fight, much less the canteen. Have some respect for your fellow crew members.”

“He took the comb out of my hand with the propulsion cannon!” a woman cried.

“She wouldn’t get out of the way!” a man said, pointing an accusing finger in her direction like a child.

Before Keen could delve into how nonsensically childish that was, a voice snapped at the group.

“Jacobs!” a woman called. “You have one job, and arguing with other staff members is not one of them.”

Jacobs’s eyes darted between the two women before he sighed and began his trek outside the canteen. “My apologies, CTO. I will get back to work right away.”

Yu’s eyes followed him as he walked back to wherever he had been assigned previously. She shot Keen a quick smile before following him out.

Again, another strange smile.

Keen didn’t have too much time to dwell on it. He reprimanded the other woman accordingly and sent her to report to the chief of her department.

But he hadn’t been expecting reliable crew members. It was pleasant to have some for a change. On his way out of the cafeteria, he grabbed a nutrient block and made a mental note to thank the chief who had intervened.

 

* * *

 

Yu glanced down at the cup of coffee in her hands, then back up to Keen with a quizzical expression. “What is this?”

“A cup of coffee. What else would it be?”

“No, I meant… Why?”

“What do you mean why?”

The two stared each other down as bystanders averted their gazes (though most likely still keeping their ears open. On a mission this boring, everyone was bound to be ready to pounce on gossip). Perhaps right outside Cargo Bay 3 wasn’t the best place to have this conversation, but calling for a meeting just to hand someone a cup of coffee seemed less reasonable. So here they were, neither of the two moving while the ruckus of propulsion cannons moving cargo played alongside speculative whispers.

“Do you need a favor from me?” Yu asked. “I don’t see why else you would give such a thing to me, though if you needed something, you could have just asked me.”

Keen frowned. If there was one thing he would criticize Alterra for, it was the utter lack of incentive for kindness unless someone wanted to move up the ladder. But Yu was already at the highest position she could be within the technology field. Her confusion was understandable.

“No, I don’t need a favor,” Keen said, “I’m a firm believer in positive reinforcement. If a crew member does something that goes above and beyond their duties, they must be rewarded. In taking responsibility for a disputer in your department, you went beyond my expectations. Additionally, I wanted to thank you for assisting me with managing multiple conflicts this past month, so this is the medium I chose to use.”

“And you couldn’t just thank me?”

Keen raised an eyebrow. “Is this not to your liking?”

“No,” Yu said, almost quick enough to step on his words. “No. This is fine. Thank you.”

Then an engineer stepped forward with eyes more mischievous than Keen liked and said, “You know, boss, the second officer came in earlier today to ask—”

“You are not part of this conversation,” Keen snapped. Logically, there was no harm in Yu knowing he had come into Cargo Bay 3 earlier to ask how she liked her coffee, but he’d be damned if he allowed an engineer to twist his words into something that would inevitably trigger more gossip than necessary. He turned back to Yu, though he could see the engineer raising his palms up in defense in the corner of his eye. “I will be taking my leave now. Again, thank you for your work.”

“And thank you for the coffee,” Yu said, a smile gracing her lips.

Keen turned on his feet then marched out of the bay. The second he rounded the corner, boxes crashed against the wall, and Yu’s commanding voice had been drowned out by the excited cheers of her team.

Ah, well. That wasn’t his problem yet. He was certain Yu could handle it.

 

* * *

 

“What is that?”

The engineer in question whipped around to him, his eyes flooding with fear upon meeting Keen’s angry eyes. He cleared his throat and swept all emotion off his face. “Oh. Second Officer. How are you today?”

“Don’t dodge the question. What is that in your hands?”

“Um… modified battery?”

“And why did you modify a battery? Did you get explicit permission from the CTO?”

“Actually, yes.”

Well, that was unexpected, especially from someone of such a high rank. She was aware of her responsibilities, and they both knew making sure the ship didn’t blow up was one of them. Keen grit his teeth, scanning the area for any sign of her. “Do you know where she is at this moment?”

“Right here.”

Keen whipped around to meet Yu’s unwavering smile.

“What can I do for you, Second Officer?” Yu asked, though it was clear she had seen the modified battery and had connected it to why Keen was standing in Cargo Bay 3.

“Do you know how dangerous these experiments are?” Keen hissed, snatching the battery from the engineer. “If one of these explodes, _especially in one of the cargo bays,_ we’ll lose all our equipment and have to pay reparations to Alterra. And the nature of modified batteries means there’s no regulation on what exactly is modified. That means all of them are unstable.”

Yu’s smile dropped, then she furrowed her eyebrows, almost as if she was offended. And she very well might have been. “Do you assume I don’t know that?”

“Judging by how you allowed one of your engineers to make such a thing, yes.”

By that point, the engineer was slowly creeping out of the room inch by inch, his eyes wide and filled with panic. Keen shot him one last glare before allowing him to scurry out of the room.

“And what do you suppose we do with our time?” Yu said.

“Were you not given a list of duties by Alterra?”

She sighed. “Let me put it this way. Your job as second officer is to assist the captain in navigation, babysit the other departments for the majority of the day, and not even Alterra knows how much else. Our only responsibility is building the phasegate in the Ariadne Arm. Last time I checked, we’re still twenty galaxies away. It’s the same way for the guys in Prawn Bay, too. Half the ship can’t do anything until we reach our destination. We don’t need that many people maintaining the ship either. So tell me, Second Officer,” she said, craning her head up to make direct eye contact with him. “What would you like us to do with our time?”

Keen hadn’t been expecting opposition, nor had he been expecting there to be a reason behind whatever the engineers were experimenting with that he wasn’t able to completely throw overboard. It was a strange, unfamiliar moment that made him want to take a step back from her. But as a person in a higher position of power, he couldn’t allow himself to do such a thing.

Instead, Keen took a moment to think before saying, “Fine. I understand. I will speak to the captain about contacting Alterra for jobs your team can do in the interim.”

“Thank you.” With a bright smile, Yu took the battery from his hands and strolled towards Seamoth Bay.

It was at that point Keen realized what had just come out of his mouth and how much he absolutely dreaded that conversation with Alterra (who would either send more jobs without a word or scold him for taking the focus of the mission away. It was 50/50). Had somebody truly managed to get him to accept such an undertaking with just a short conversation?

But inside that short conversation were skillful maneuvers that showed how much effort Yu had put into learning the ins and outs of how exactly Alterra worked: making a personal connection to the person she was speaking to, inserting a bit of flattery, then setting him up as the only person who could solve their current issues. It was almost unnerving how formulaic it was.

Yet at the same time, it was admirable. Keen had already respected Yu (he wouldn’t be on the same ship as her if he didn’t), but now he could respect her skills that weren’t tied to technology.

Keen took a sharp breath before heading down to the captain’s quarters.

It was not a fun conversation with Alterra.

 

* * *

 

The moment Keen entered the living quarters, a light flashed in the corner of his room, and a robot droned, “Welcome, Second Officer Keen.”

That wasn’t supposed to be there.

After nearly tripping over nothing from the surprise, he shut the door and inched closer to the light.

The source of the light was a small, metallic box with a single lense for light to pass through. A pair of speakers were on either side of the box, along with a volume slider he wished he had seen before (he also noted some clown had set it to the loudest volume. Most likely the person who had installed it in his room).

Keen slid the volume down, then flipped it over to find a note reading, “Gift. No favor. Thanks for the work.”

There was only one engineer on the ship who could conceivably receive access to his room and be ridiculous enough to create an entire robot just as a gift. And a robot whose only function was to welcome him to his room and flash lights at him, at that.

Nice. Utterly useless, but nice nonetheless.

Keen made a note to thank Yu the next day before carefully placing the robot’s light upside down, then going to sleep.

 

* * *

 

Parties were insufferable. Being around drunk people was insufferable. Staying up past when he was usually asleep was insufferable. He would even dare say Alterra was insufferable for forcing him and many other members of the ship to attend for “morale.” Whatever that meant in Alterra’s eyes.

Keen stood by the door, his arms crossed as he scowled at every person who tried approaching him. Childish, maybe, but so was this entire event. Parties did not need a second officer to play babysitter. That’s not what he was being paid to do.

Then a familiar face stumbled out of the crowd and beamed up at him. “Hello, Second Officer.”

Oh, great. Someone he was obligated to greet politely.

“Good evening, CTO,” Keen said, trying his best to keep his voice level.

She leaned back on the wall next to him and imitated his crossed arms. “What are you doing pouting in the corner by yourself? Afraid of living a little?”

Keen blinked, a tad put off by her words. It pushed the boundary from a superior-subordinate relationship to something more akin to a friendship (or just a normal Yu relationship, judging by the things he’s heard the engineers laughing about). “You’re not drunk, are you?”

“Of course not,” Yu snorted. “I’m not sure handling valuable equipment that could slice my hand off while hungover would be my greatest idea in the world.”

“You’re right about that,” Keen chuckled. That was probably the first time he had laughed since he boarded the ship. He turned to her, only to see her face frozen in awe. He raised an eyebrow. “Is there something on my face?”

Yu snapped out of her trance and shook her head, plastering her usual smile back on her face. “No. Everything’s fine.”

Keen had his doubts about that but figured he shouldn’t push. Instead, he asked, “Why are you standing in the corner with me?”

“I just wanted to make sure you weren’t dead on the wall. That happens far more often than you’d think.”

“Morbid.”

“Yes, I’m aware.” She shifted so the side of her body leaned on the wall and she faced Keen directly. “May I ask why you’re not enjoying the party?”

“I have duties to do that don’t require a party,” Keen said, “This is a waste of time for me.”

Yu giggled and elbowed him. “Come on, lighten up a little! You can’t spend your entire life doing nothing but work.”

He very well could. Work was the only thing he had seen his parents doing, and work had been the center of his life since he was old enough to do so without restrictions. He was certain other Alterran children had similar experiences.

Keen raised an eyebrow. “That’s a strange ideology to have here. You weren’t raised in Alterra, were you?”

“Not at all. Though I wasn’t raised in the Mongolian States either, if that sort of thing matters to you. And I assume your family represented Alterran values well?”

The conversation was becoming too personal for Keen’s liking, especially when Yu had already broken the touch barrier by elbowing him earlier. Being too friendly with co-workers was a dangerous game to play. Wrecking the friendship could mean destroying hundreds of connections, but having the friendship become too strong would mean being accused of favoritism. Neither of those options seemed particularly pleasant to him.

Yet at the same time, he was intrigued. Not many people dared to push his boundaries this way, or at all. Despite not being Alterran, Yu sure seemed like she knew what she was doing, slowly pushing at his boundaries and testing his limits until she broke his resolve. Maybe a friendship could go right; two people liking each other’s company, no more, no less. But that would mean making an edit to their relationship contract…

“Yes,” Keen said, “Both my parents are Alterran.”

Yu nodded along, fiddling with the tips of her hair. “Interesting. Say, you don’t seem like you’re enjoying this party too much. How would you like to accompany me to the VR suites instead?”

Keen frowned. “CTO, both of us are required to be here.”

“Has anyone ever told you to live a little? Requirements from Alterra are essentially suggestions when we’re this far away from them, barring anything related to the phasegate. And it’s not like anyone would miss us. Berkeley’s got everyone’s eyes on him with a game of zero-G beer pong.”

The idea of abandoning his post and lying to Alterra about his whereabouts made his skin crawl. This was uncharted waters, and if he made the wrong move, he could drown at any moment.

Still, he had already made a series of bad decisions that night just by talking to her and giving into her smile. What was one more?

“Fine,” Keen said with a reluctant sigh. “I suppose I should accompany you. There’s no telling how far you would mess with the programming of it if no one is present to restrain you.”

Yu grinned. “Ah, I see you’ve heard some stories from the guys in Prawn Bay.”

“Too much. Now, come on. This was your idea.”

The two sneak out of the party by ignoring everyone else and walking out of the room. It was probably the least stealthy “stealth” mission Keen had ever been assigned to, but no one seemed to care.

Just as Keen predicted, he ended up watching Yu play with the VR suite’s programming and stopping her before she could take it beyond the point of return. Her fingers worked quickly and with purpose, no movement wasted on meaningless tasks. She had tied her hair back in preparation of the dangers that could arise from taking electronic components apart. Her eyes were bright. It was apparent she loved her job.

Keen couldn’t look away. It was fascinating seeing an expert working in their field, but he suspected there was something more at play here. Then a thought hit him like a Seamoth at max speed—Did he think Yu was attractive?

He banished the thought from his head entirely. He was not allowed to think such things of his co-workers, nor would he ever entertain the thought.

The next day when Keen managed to stomp his feelings to a fine powder, he met with Yu to edit their relationship contract.

They could now be called friends.

 

* * *

 

They met again in the halls, when Keen carried a metallic crate in his hands and Yu was accompanied by two engineers, who trailed behind her.

Keen nodded. “Hello, CTO Yu.”

Yu shot him a bright smile. “Good afternoon, Officer Keen. Would you like help carrying that crate?”

“No, it’s alright. This is as light as a feather.” A lie, of course. He didn’t know why he had picked up the crate first before unlocking his propulsion cannon, but at that point there was no turning back.

It seemed she had caught onto his lie, because she raised a dubious eyebrow at him. Her eyes darted down to the strained muscles in his arms for a split second before returning to look into his own. Nevertheless, she deferred to his position. “If you say so. I’ll see you later.”

Keen nodded again and walked past the group.

The two engineers behind her snickered and nudged her. “You’re so obvious, boss,” one of the two said.

She shushed them, then they carried on.

Keen’s eyebrows furrowed, but he continued walking with an otherwise impartial face. Obvious? What did they mean by that?

Oh, well. Yu probably had it under control.

 

* * *

 

Yu did not have it under control. In fact, nobody had it under control now.

“You know why I called you here, right?” Keen said.

Yu sat on the other side of his desk, somehow managing to stay calm under his intense glare. Instead, she faced him directly with a smile just a bit more strained than usual. “No. Care to enlighten me?”

“Don’t make me say it.”

“I will.”

He sighed and rubbed his head. “I have called you here on account of one of your engineers fooling around with a repulsion cannon and repulsing the dehydrated desserts into space.”

“Ah.”

“Can you please explain what happened?”

She leaned back in her chair, whirling back and forth in thought. “Well, Stevens asked a drone to bring him a battery for his repulsion cannon, but he asked it in a way that didn’t exactly radiate politeness. So, Albert gave him a modified battery, and Stevens used it on the crates in Cargo Bay 3 immediately without checking if he had the correct battery. Or so I’ve been told. I was unfortunately not present at the incident.”

“Who’s Albert?”

“The drone.”

Okay, that changed things.

Keen stared at her in disbelief. “... You named a drone Albert… and you tweaked its programming to be rebellious.”

“Not quite rebellious. He just deeply values respect. You know, kind of like you.”

“Why?”

She shrugged. “Normally I would ask why not, but now I can see the drawbacks of that decision.”

It was at this point Keen realized his friend was absolutely insane. Incredibly smart, determined, and clever beyond what should be allocated for one human, but insane.

He cleared his throat and his mind. He needed to focus on the task at hand, not wander off into his thoughts. “Right. Stevens will be reprimanded accordingly. You, on the other hand, will disassemble the drone and fix its programming to align with the base drones.”

She gasped. “You’re asking me to murder Albert?”

“Tweak him. I’m not asking you to chuck him out into space.”

Yu pouted but nodded. “Understood. I will get to doing so right away.”

The relaxed aura around her he had grown accustomed to disappeared and was replaced by a solemn heaviness, not unlike the density of air after a rainstorm. It felt as if the two were suspended in the bottom of the ocean, unable to hear and unable to move from the pressure of the water pushing down on them. And combined with the lack of smile on her lips, looking at her was deeply unsettling.

“May I be dismissed now?”

Keen snapped out of his thoughts, his gaze settling on the blank stare of the woman in front of him. Right. He had forgotten she needed his dismissal. But what had come out of his mouth was definitely not what he had intended to say: “Please don’t take this personally. I’m just trying to make the best decisions for the ship. You are dismissed.”

Yu’s eyes brightened, and the unnerving atmosphere dissipated when her smile returned. “I know. Thank you.”

“You are _dismissed._ ”

She didn’t seem to take his emphasis seriously, but she walked out of the room nonetheless, shutting the door behind her.

Keen sighed and hid his face behind his hands. His words were far beyond what he was supposed to say as second officer. While he hadn’t gone so far as to allow his biases to influence how he chose to discipline, it was still unsettling how far into unfamiliar territory he had trekked.

This was a dangerous game to play. He was done playing it.

 

* * *

 

“CTO Yu,” Keen called, stopping on one side of the hallway.

Yu, who held a crate suspended in the air with a propulsion cannon, smiled and waved, walking straight past him.

Propulsion cannons usually took two hands to operate, maybe one if the user was familiar enough with the equipment. Yu had just strolled past him, carrying it with two fingers loosely wrapped around one of the handles as if it was nothing.

Keen stared after her, finding the words he had prepared well in advance had died in his throat.

Nevermind.

 

* * *

 

Someone knocked on the door to his office.

“Come in,” Keen said. He almost took back his words upon seeing who exactly had popped their head in. “CTO Yu. What can I do for you?”

“Would you like to have lunch together?” Yu asked, her lips curved into the same polite smile it had been in since they first met.

Yet somehow it was different. Keen didn’t have the emotional know-how to explain why, even to himself. Something was subtly off about the entire situation.

It took approximately half a second for Keen to realize he was the idiot of the century.

Even if they had labeled themselves friends, neither of the two had actually shared a meal with someone outside of work reasons. The concept was so foreign he wasn’t sure it was even mentioned in their relationship contract.

“Officer Keen?” Yu called, breaking him from his thoughts. “You think too much sometimes. It’s a yes or no question.”

“Yes,” Keen blurted before his brain could catch up with him. “That would be pleasant.”

Yu blinked at the response, then beamed at him. “Where would you like to go?”

The two went back and forth, pushing the choice on the other. In the end, Keen had relented when Yu’s smile fell and spouted the name of some random restaurant in the ship.

When their meeting ended and Keen walked back to Seamoth Bay to supervise, he found himself smiling.

 

* * *

 

“Second Officer? You’re smiling. Is there something wrong?”

“I’m not smiling. Anyway, the captain needed me to pass these documents to you for scanning.”

“You are. I just saw the CTO walk out of your office. Does that have anything to do with it?”

“Take the documents and leave.”

 

* * *

 

“Who kidnapped Keen and replaced him with an imposter?”

Keen raised an eyebrow. “Captain, I’m not sure such comments are relevant to the navigation of the ship.”

“We’re navigating space just fine. I just wanted to make sure you were navigating your life just as smoothly.”

The two were in the Aurora’s scanner room, reviewing navigation plans and the expected timeline. The meeting had gone smoothly. Nothing was in the way of their goal date, and neither disagreed on how the ship should function. That left at least five minutes of free time, and Keen wasn’t sure how he could fill it. But the captain sure did.

“Captain, my life is the ship,” Keen said, “I don’t believe Alterra would want us having these discussions during worktime.”

Again, Hollister dismissed him with a wave. “I’ve only got another ten years left in me, Keen. And you know this is the last ship I will be captaining for the rest of my life. What are they going to do, fire me?”

Keen had to admit he had a point, as much as he thought Hollister was a tad too lax at times. Not to mention, Hollister was above him in position, and he was an old family friend as well. Hell, he would go as far as saying Hollister had helped raise him. He needed to pay at least some semblance of respect.

Keen sighed. “I understand. But my personal life is going smoothly. I don’t see why you’d ask.”

“You’re smiling more,” Hollister said, “and some of the staff have been genuinely concerned about your well-being because of your increasingly positive attitude.”

“They should mind their own business and focus on their work.”

“It isn’t a crime to worry about your fellow crew members. Neither is entering a romantic relationship with another crew member, if that is of any concern to you.”

Keen’s heart stopped, and he could feel his face heating up past acceptable levels. He knew there had been rumors, but he didn’t think it would reach someone as high up as the captain. “I do not want to enter a romantic relationship with CTO Yu of all people! Whoever has told you that is a liar.”

“I didn’t say anything about her.”

“That doesn’t mean anything. It was simply the only logical choice of partner others would assume I have.”

Still, the knowing look on Hollister’s face didn’t fade. “Yu and I speak often. As far as I know, she isn’t opposed to the idea.”

Keen popped out of his chair and pointed at his watch, stumbling in his hurry to leave the room. “That’s the end of our time. I’m needed in Prawn Bay for the next two hours. Am I dismissed?”

“Just think about what I said when you get the chance.”

“Captain, am I dismissed?”

“You are dismissed.”

With that, Keen opened the door and stepped out, only to be face to face with the person he wanted to see the least.

Instead of her usual greeting, Yu’s eyebrows furrowed. “Officer Keen? Your face is awfully red. Would you like to visit the medical offices?”

Keen’s chest tightened. His head spun, and his face felt as if it was on fire. “No. I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Very sure.” He spun on his heels and stomped towards Prawn Bay as soon as he could. The further away from Yu’s burning questioning stare he walked, the faster his heart slowed and his face cooled. Was this what losing control felt like? If it was, he didn’t like it.

People practically jumped out of his way as he stormed towards Prawn Bay. And he was perfectly fine with that.

But was Hollister correct about his assumption? It was one thing to deny rumours about himself and a co-worker, it was another thing to jump to conclusions and deny something that wasn’t even accused of him. And there was no logical explanation for why he had gotten so flustered when he saw Yu. Unless…

Keen groaned and hid his face in his hands.

Maybe he had gotten closer to Yu than originally planned.

 

* * *

 

Keen blinked, his crossed arms freezing as his heart rate sped up. “I’m sorry, could you please repeat that?”

Yu didn’t seem to be in much of a better state than him, but she maintained direct eye contact with him despite how red her face may have been. “I’m asking if you would agree to edit our relationship terms to be more along the lines of… partners.”

“Partners as in…”

“Significant others. Lovers. Whatever archaic term you wish to use.” Yu offered him an embarrassed smile. “So? What do you say?”

It felt as if his mind was full of static. His thoughts were obscured by a thick cloud. Everything in the world burned around them, leaving only the two standing in front of each other.

“I… Yes,” Keen managed to squeak out. He cleared his throat and took a more authoritative voice. “I agree to those terms. Shall we edit our relationship contract?”

Yu stared at him, her mouth slightly agape. Then she shut it and nodded with stars in her eyes. Her lips curved into the smile he had grown to adore. “Yes. I will see you tomorrow.”

“See you then.”

 

* * *

 

“Keen.”

Keen stopped. He stared down at Yu’s smiling face that pretended she wasn’t deliberately blocking his way. He glanced at the three engineers trailing her before returning his gaze to her. “Yu. Would you care to move out of my way?”

Yu shook her head, then tapped her cheek.

Oh.

Keen sighed. “Yu, you can’t just stop me like this every time you want a kiss.”

“Well, what are you going to do about it?” Yu said, her eyes sparkling with mischief. Her smile curved down into a smirk.

Keen rolled his eyes before leaning down and pecking her on the cheek.

Yu took a giant step to the side with a huge smile on her face. She hummed as she strolled down the hallway with a new bounce in her step. Her engineers followed, one shooting Keen a congratulatory thumbs up and the others nudging their boss and snickering.

That was bound to start some gossip, but Keen found he couldn’t care. And after Yu disappeared past a corner, he touched his lips and smiled.

 

* * *

 

The next phases of their partnership were exhilarating. It was a privilege getting to know Yu, not the CTO, and Keen hoped she felt the same about him. He learned her favorite type of food was seafood, her first toy was a wrench she had stolen from her father’s workshop, she had once dabbled in the art of origami (a slightly crumpled paper crane sat on Keen’s desk, proud despite its faults), her favorite type of television program was cooking shows, and so much more he wouldn’t have thought to ask the CTO he had first met.

Their first fight had been about Keen not reciprocating the same about himself. At least, not to that extent. Instead of the screaming and deletion of relationship contracts usually displayed in television shows, their argument had been full of cutting words and sharp insults that left both of them bleeding.

Keen was the first to step away after seeing the damage he had inflicted on the woman he claimed to love. And he was also the first to knock on her cabin door in the middle of the night, holding the crumpled paper crane in his hands with an apologetic speech readied.

Yet Yu was the first to step forward and embrace him, the paper crane be damned, before he could even get one word of his speech out. The contact was welcomed, warm, forgiving. And soon, Keen found himself holding onto Yu for dear life.

 

* * *

 

“Yu, return these papers to the captain by six o’clock tomorrow morning,” Keen said, dropping a stack of papers on Yu’s desk.

Yu hummed as she shuffled through the papers. “Will do.”

If Keen had to choose one thing to be especially relieved about concerning their partnership, it was that both of them were work-oriented people and knew how to keep work life and personal life separate. And upon hearing the sigh of relief from her when Keen said nothing else and walked out of her office, he knew Yu would choose the same thing.

 

* * *

 

A warmth settled by Keen’s side. He and Yu snuggled in her bed, her head buried in the crook of his neck as they worked on their PDAs. The silence was occasionally interrupted by either of the two asking a question, followed by a hum of acknowledge and typing. The scent of vanilla floated in the room. Machines softly whirred in the background; the scene wouldn’t be complete with it.

He wouldn’t mind living the rest of his life like this.

 

* * *

 

Of all places Keen could be during an event that would turn his world upside down, he was in the scanner room mediating a petty fight between the pettiest members of the ship.

Keen sighed and paused to collect his thoughts before saying, “The way I see it, no one’s to blame here.”

“He gave me the wrong coordinates!” a woman cried, pointing an accusing finger at the man across from the hologram projecting in the middle of the room.

The man’s lips pulled back into a snarl. “She didn’t give me clear instruction!”

Were these the people he had been counting on for the past thirteen months? No wonder their trip had felt a bit slow. And after that amount of time of being on the ship, there was no way he would allow their argument to jeopardize their chances of navigating to their target planet. Not when they were this close.

“Okay, I'll rephrase,” Keen said, “you've been equally incompetent. Now, we've lost time, but we're closer to the planet, so if the Degasi's out there the scan should pick it up.”

After a long talk with the woman about why they should even be helping the Mongolians in the first place (Seriously. These were his crew members?), the man squinted his eyes and leaned closer to the holographic display of the planet. “Sir, there’s something odd on the surface scan here.”

“Turn that recorder off!” Keen scrambled to adjust his view on the unidentified object while the two crew members rushed to disable the recording feature on their PDAs.

The unidentified object was a mess on the hologram. It didn’t match the data of any mountain or geographic feature they had encountered so far, nor did its shape suggest it to be any obvious feature. The scanner had never seen anything like it.

Then the sound of a giant explosion wrecking the other side of the ship made his blood run cold.

A robotic voice played over the sirens that had begun to ring. “Attention. Hull failure imminent. All personnel abandon ship.”

This couldn’t be happening.

Keen snapped to his senses and pushed the other two crew members out of the scanner room. “Go! Lifepods are to the right!”

Luckily, the two had managed to put their difference aside long enough for Keen to watch them stumble into the same lifepod and detach from the ship.

Keen had managed to herd a few more people into the lifepods before his PDA buzzed with a message. He picked up the call. “Captain?”

“Keen!” Hollister said, “I know you want to make sure everyone else gets in the lifepods, but you need to evacuate.”

In all their years together, never before had Keen heard such obvious panic and fear lacing his voice. But at the same time, his words were firm. It was clear he didn’t have a choice in the matter.

“But sir—”

“Those are my orders. Evacuate!” And with that, static replaced the words.

Keen reluctantly stepped into Lifepod 19. As soon as he set foot into it, the door slammed shut, and he stumbled into a chair. A protective brace slid in place over his body. He screwed his eyes shut, trying to block out the sounds of screams and sirens around him.

So many people onboard, so many lives lost just in that initial blast. How many people had made it into the lifepods—

Yu. Where was Yu?

Keen’s hands clamped around the brace. His breath escalated, and it felt as if his stomach were dropping with the lifepod.

Last time he checked, she was in Cargo Bay 3. That was on the same side of the ship the scanner room was in, so she shouldn’t have been killed in the initial blast. And there were plenty of lifepod decks nearby… But was Yu careless enough to push her engineers ahead of her before escaping herself? After all, Keen had barely made it into his lifepod. There was no telling what Yu was thinking at the time of the incident.

Before dread could eat him from the inside out, another voice played from his PDA.

“Keen! This is Aurora, come in,” came the captain’s voice. It was much labored than their previous call, though the fear and panic had been displaced with strained determination.

Keen suppressed a gasp. He had to focus on what was important, not his emotions. His mind scrambled to find the correct protocol to recite. “This is Keen, lifepod detached okay, planetfall in 30 seconds!”

“The computer has identified a landmass at the attached coordinates! I want you to regroup the crew there!”

He was the one to regroup everyone? That was the captain’s job, unless…

Keen swallowed. “Understood, but—”

“They are your responsibility now, don’t let them down!”

“Captain, you need to evacuate!”

“Negative, you'll need the ship in one piece if you're going to contact HQ on the long-range.” Hollister paused, harsh winds whistling through the microphone of his PDA. “I'm attempting a controlled descent.”

If Hollister intended to say anything afterwards, it was completely obscured by a round of explosions.

“Captain?!” Keen cried, suddenly feeling much smaller than he had ever before. The static on the other end of the line sent shivers down his spine and alarms ringing in his head.

There was no time to worry about what had happened to the captain. His lifepod had landed on the planet and breached some body of water’s surface. It sank almost three hundred meters before Keen realized the flotation devices on his lifepod had failed.

Keen took a shuddery breath and closed his eyes. _Okay, Keen, don’t panic. Your oxygen won’t run out as long as you’re in the lifepod. Right now, you have a job to do._

Even if the radio installed into his PDA wasn’t strong enough to broadcast to a number of people, the radio inside the lifepod had luckily survived the crash. Keen kept the red button pushed as he spoke.

“This is Officer Keen in Lifepod 19! The captain is gone. I have assumed command.” That hurt to say. He had always wanted to be considered the captain of a ship, but not like this. But he had to continue. For the captain and for everyone else on the Aurora. “The last thing the captain did was give me coordinates for dry land. We regroup one and a half kilometers south-west of the crash site. Stay together. Good luck. This message will now repeat.”

Keen frowned at his PDA’s detailing of where exactly his lifepod had landed. Nearly three hundred meters down inside a trench in a biome with low biodiversity. Not to mention, his PDA had entered survival mode. Methods of communication on it had been shut off to prioritize other tools. His odds of survival didn’t look good.

He opened the red storage unit in his lifepod. Two bottles of water, two nutrient blocks, and a seaglide. His odds were slightly better. But his odds would be even better if he could figure out where exactly he was.

Keen grabbed the seaglide. He unlocked the top latch of his lifepod before taking a deep breath and diving into the unknown.

 

* * *

 

Keen had just finished had just finished recording a map of his immediate surroundings when the red light on the lifepod’s radio flashed with a new message.

“This is Lifepod 6, I have a passenger onboard. Coordinates attached. We've landed a kilometer from the crash site, but there's radiation in between us and the rendezvous. Request immediate assistance. 6 out.”

“This is Lifepod 3, uploading our coordinates. We're plugging some holes in our emergency seaglide, so if we're late for the rendezvous, don't panic. Also, don't go home without us. Seriously. 3 out.”

Keen’s chest tightened as he continued playing the barrage of distress calls he had received. So many people, yet not much at the same time. Seven messages, ten total lifepods that survived the fall, but one hundred fifty seven people onboard. But what was perhaps the worst part was that he could very well be alone already. Lifepod radio signals had a slight delay. By the time someone received a message, that person could have been dead. With a heavy heart, he played the final message he received.

“This is Lifepod 2, coordinates attached! We're way past our safe depth and bleeding O2. We'll have to swim for the surface, but it's 500 meters straight up. We'll make for the rendezvous and keep you posted. Yu, out.”

Yu was alive. Yu was alive!

Keen let out a shuddery sigh of relief, replaying the message over and over again. His heart felt as if it was about to leap out of his chest. He closed his eyes.

Yu was alive. Her circumstances weren’t great, but she was the CTO. Combined with her skills in technology and her immense creativity, she could weasel her way out of any difficult situation.

But at the same time, he couldn’t help but worry. What if she had decided to sacrifice whatever oxygen she had for the sake of whoever was in the lifepod with her? What if she ran into a hostile predator? What if she couldn’t survive her circumstances in the first place? What if the message was delayed and she was already dead?

The crackle of technology being fried snapped him out of his thoughts. Nothing inside the lifepod seemed to be damaged by water. There were no openings for water to leak in either. Keen’s hands tightened around the seaglide, and he took a step back, keeping his eyes on the walls of the lifepod.

Then after a moment of silence, a blue scythe burst through the wall, grabbing the other chair in the lifepod with it and sending water flooding in. A dark purple creature came into view. Its inner organs were visible through its translucent stomach. It had two sharp teeth and four soulless, glowing purple eyes. With a shriek, it threw a beam of white light at him.

Keen gasped and stepped to the side, but it was too late. A blue and white storm blurred his vision. His body felt as if it had dissolved into the water. Nothing existed anymore.

Then he opened his eyes, and he was suddenly a couple meters above his lifepod.

There was no time for questions. Keen swam straight up with his seaglide, his legs burning from the intensity of his kicking and head still fuzzy from the confusion of being teleported. When he broke the surface, he felt no relief. There was only a bleak emptiness, as if he had been warped out of himself.

Keen took out his PDA and wrote a crew log. He dropped it in the ocean, hoping the log would make it to the top of the lifepod, before swimming towards the coordinates given for the rendezvous.

_“To all crew - If you are reading this then you have followed the automatic distress signal broadcast by this lifepod's onboard computer, contrary to my orders. I have been forced to evacuate. Your orders are to disregard my safety and attempt to reach the designated rendezvous coordinates at the nearest landmass. I hope to see you there.”_

 

* * *

Dry land, just as the captain had promised.

Keen climbed onto the sand and took his mask off. He waited among the vegetation.

 

* * *

 

One hour later, no one.

He replayed the captain’s last messages on his PDA and Yu’s distress signal. It was enough company for now.

 

* * *

 

Two hours later, Keen was still the only living person on the island. The dread of him truly being the only survivor sunk in.

He couldn’t be. He had to keep waiting.

 

* * *

 

The unmistakable sound of someone frantically kicking at the water brought Keen out of his daze. His throat tightened as he stood up. He desperately scanned the ocean for any sign of life.

Then someone in a wetsuit dove onto the sand, staying still for a few seconds before finally mustering the strength to stand up. They stumbled and froze upon seeing Keen.

Another person. Someone had actually survived.

Keen stepped forward. “Hello? Are you alright? Do you have any injuries?”

A shake of their head.

“Do you know of any other survivors?”

They stiffened before shaking their head.

“Very well. Please identify yourself.”

The person unlatched the locking mechanisms of the mask then tossed it to the ground, revealing a tear-streaked face.

Keen’s heart stopped. His voice dropped to a whisper. “Yu?”

Yu dove forward and embraced him with the intensity only someone who had survived the worst could conjure. She buried her head into the crook of his neck, mourning but able to hold herself together enough to keep her tears back. There had been another person in the lifepod with her, most likely one of her engineers, the people she had grown to trust over the course of a year. But if they weren’t by Yu’s side…

Keen wrapped his arms around her, feeling pain and regret laced in her touch. And he knew they were present in his own contact as well.

They stood still, holding each other as tightly as they could.

 

* * *

 

After an eternity, Yu had bounced back to taking as much control of their situation as she could. It was a feature of hers Keen had initially adored, but now that her suggestions could result in both of them being killed, he would rather jump back into his sunken lifepod than stay at the rendezvous point.

“We have to board the Aurora, repair the long range comms, make contact with the other survivors,” Yu said, pacing back and forth in the water. “We can’t be the only two that made it.”

“Those are not the orders the captain gave me, and they are not the orders I'm giving you,” Keen hissed, arms crossed and scowl etched onto his face.

“This isn’t chain of command, it’s survival.”

“My obligations as acting commander don't turn on their convenience. Get out of the water.”

Yu stepped further into the water, practically already swimming at this point. She raised her palms up defensively. “If I get into trouble, I'll send you my coordinates.”

There was no point trying to convince Yu to do anything she didn’t want to do. Keen blurted, “I can’t let you go alone.”

“Then come with me.”

Keen stopped, his glare disappearing.

Yu stared back at him with a peculiar smile. The same smile she had wore during their first meeting and the same smile she wore when she bounced through the halls of the Aurora. Then it softened into a solemn one, the smile reserved only for Keen.

He couldn’t. If Yu couldn’t be convinced otherwise, he could not in good faith, as second officer and as her partner, allow her to go alone.

Keen scoffed and stepped into the water. “You don’t leave me much choice.”

 

* * *

 

The new biome they found themselves in was an explosion of color next to a brown, murky wasteland. Wildlife near the border swam closer towards the part of the ocean with clear, blue water and flora as far as the eye could see. If the differences were this stark, the Aurora must have done a good amount of damage to the local environment.

“Can you see an entrance?” Keen asked when he surfaced.

Yu’s eyes narrowed. She swam to the side, leaning closer towards the ship. “It looks like there could be an entrance at the starboard, where most of the damage is. Should we go there?” She turned around towards Keen for an answer, only for her eyes to land on something behind him.

Keen whipped around as well. His eyes widened.

Lifepod 5 floated on the water’s surface, bobbing up and down with the waves. Its exterior was undisturbed. Flotation devices were intact. The bottom side wasn’t scorched.

Yu swam forward, heading straight for the lifepod.

Keen followed without a word.

Time stopped as they unlocked the bottom hatch of the lifepod. Yu stepped in first.

Keen waited, only to hear coughing. He rushed up into the lifepod and was met with flames engulfing one half of the lifepod while an unconscious man sat in a seat, his hands still loosely wrapped around the brace.

Extinguisher. Fire extinguisher. Where was it?

Yu bent down and picked up a fire extinguisher. She gestured towards the man before spraying the flames.

Keen resisted the need to knock himself on the head for that massive oversight. He unlatched the brace and held his breath as he held his hand to the man’s chest.

A heartbeat. Another survivor.

“He’s alive,” Keen breathed. He turned back to Yu, his heart jumping at the sight of her staring back at him without the light of the fire behind her. She had tossed the extinguisher aside. It was a mundane scene in an extraordinary circumstance, and he couldn’t look away.

Yu stepped closer to the two, taking note of the man’s features. “Ryley Robinson, chief of non-essential maintenance systems.”

“You know him?”

“I’ve met him once. Resourceful fellow.”

Keen wiped the soot off Robinson’s face, almost chuckling at the blue streak in his mohawk. “It’s only a matter of time before he wakes up. We have work to do.”

Yu paused before reaching her hand out. She locked eyes with him. “We can make it through this. We can survive.”

Keen swallowed, finding it was difficult to force words out of his mouth. He took her hand. “Yes. We will survive.”

And that was the truth. If it wasn’t, they would make it the truth.

Yu smiled.

Keen smiled back.


End file.
